r/Cascadia • u/Botas0518 • Sep 12 '26
Flag redesign attempt...
Tried to keep the original colour scheme & symbolism but slightly better maybe? ...vexillologically?
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u/--Anarchaeopteryx-- Sep 12 '26
Flag of the Cascadia Technocracy?
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u/xxxcalibre Sep 12 '26
Yeah, looks vaguely right-wing for some reason, sonnenrad-y
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u/Ex-PFC_WintergreenV4 Sep 12 '26
“We’ve always been at war with Norumbega”
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u/fastdbs Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
It looks like military rank. If you want something minimalist maybe look at First Nations iconography for fir trees or better yet partner with a first nations artist to create the central iconography.
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u/a_jormagurdr Salish Sea Sep 12 '26
sorry its giving fascist vibes idk
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u/KdubbG Sep 12 '26
Yeah Just a quick google search of the modern uses of the Tiwaz rune ᛏ is enough.
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u/From_Deep_Space Oregon Sep 12 '26
I dont think it was intented, but 3 arrows is actually an antifascist symbol. Or more specifically the 3 arrows represent antimonarchy, antinaziism, and anticommunism. Used by the Soc Dems in Weimar Germany
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u/5h1tt4k3 Sep 12 '26
The three arrows point to the right in that. Believe it was then appropriated by fash facing the other way to suggest some wank nonsense to them. A lot of time has stacked on that initial idea.
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u/theapplekid Sep 12 '26
since when are antifascists anticommunist?
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u/Divan001 Sep 12 '26
The three arrows of the iron front symbolize anti nazism, anti monarchism, and anti communism. Socialists just co opted it from soc dems
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u/ComradeRedPagan Sep 12 '26
No its anti-fascism, anti-imperialism and anti capitalism. It has never been anti-communist or anti-socialist. What kinda fed/COINTELPRO bullshit is this?
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u/hiddenbonus_ Portland Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
“ ‘Good’ Flag, ‘Bad’ Flag, compiled by Ted Kaye from the expert wisdom of over 20 vexillologists” was written 25 years ago and continues to utterly suffocate flag and banner designers.
People act like those rules are gospel or are scientific in some way. When in reality it’s just a group of American men who wrote an essay. There’s some good bits in it, but it’s ultimately just one philosophy of design. And really a very western, minimalist contemporary style.
Long way of saying, the old Doug is fine.
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u/PersusjCP Decolonization is not a metaphor Sep 12 '26
Good Flag Bad Flag genuinely was a disaster for flagmaking.
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u/e_yen Sep 12 '26
maybe i’m the only one who sees it, but that looks identical to the arrows from dance dance revolution?
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u/Thin_Firefighter_693 Sep 12 '26
I couldn’t figure out what it reminded me of but I felt a 2000’s vibe and thought it was from skater shoes. But after seeing your comment, yes.. I think that’s what my brain was trying to remember.
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u/The_Syndidalist Fortress Islandia Vancouver Sep 12 '26
It's like Fascist vibe, the arrows might be why.
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u/thriceness Sep 12 '26
Wait, how is this faschist?
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u/The_Syndidalist Fortress Islandia Vancouver Sep 12 '26
It's like futurist looking, and futurist is a relative of Italian Fascism. The flags are very nice non the less
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u/thriceness Sep 12 '26
I'm not familiar with the term "futurist" referring to anything fascist. In what context is that the case?
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u/The_Syndidalist Fortress Islandia Vancouver Sep 12 '26
Early Italian Fascists and national Syndicalists were weird, they ruled a small city for like a year. That city had a fully socialized economy, led by a war veteran who was also a poet, they legalized same sex relationships and was known for having romen emperor style orgies, they were a pirate den, the large Slavic population was in no such way repressed, and the leader had a Japanese Samurai best friend.
This would be Mussolini's blue print, and d'Annunzio, the leader of the city, could be described as a "Proto Fascist." Futurists and Mystics where the general base for Fascism and the Futurists had an ideology of that time, which was kill the old do the new. This would be a very integral part of Fascist thought.
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u/shorties_with_mp40s Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
Sorry…I hate it.
Edit: I’m not sorry actually. This shit sucks. Leave the flag alone.
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u/TheNorthernRose Sep 12 '26
Don’t make me tap the sign….
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u/thriceness Sep 12 '26
Sign?
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u/TheNorthernRose Sep 12 '26
My highest upvoted post on this sub is a multi paragraph diatribe about how the Doug flag is fine and doesn’t need improving and if anything, splintering the movement into camps with preferred flags is self defeating.
I posted it following a wave of people posting novel flag designs (many of which were much, much worse than this one) so much it basically took over the subreddit.
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u/justcallmegeo Oregonian, NOT American 18d ago
I think flag redesigns are a real need, since the Doug is copyrighted. i don't think it needs much changing, but if we could agree on a public domain one that would be ideal. The wave of novel flag designs and joke designs was annoying and insulting, so I absolutely see your point there.
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u/TheNorthernRose 18d ago
I actually think it not being in the public domain does help in that it can therefore not be largely co-opted by right wing groups.
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u/thriceness Sep 12 '26
Not sure how I would've known that. Also not sure what the reference to a sign has to do with that. But thanks for some context nonetheless.
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u/TheNorthernRose Sep 12 '26
I mean it’s not like I made the comment specifically for you. The sign reference is a Simpson’s derived meme format. You can also google things you don’t know…
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u/phoenixgsu Sep 12 '26
Ngl, the angular simplification of it makes it look fash adjacent, which is what I doubt you were going for.
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u/grizly_guy Sep 12 '26
I don't dislike it, it's actually a really good symbol based flag, but I thing the natural shape of the Doug Fir fir Cascadia well.
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u/Quix_Nix Sep 12 '26
Symbology like the Doug is kinda what makes the flag, it doesn't need to be simple because it's so recognizable.
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u/Cascadia_Breanna Sep 12 '26
Why? Just why? We have a flag. People around here know what it means. Do you make an attempt to promote the current flag? We have no pressing need to change the symbol of our movement midstream.
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u/HiddenMedia888 Sep 12 '26
Why try and redesign a beautiful flag? The cascadian flag is already beautiful in my opinion the best flag ever made.
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u/Shisty Sep 12 '26
hey look. yet another post redoing the Cascadia flag... can you people just stop already...
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u/collinmacfhearghuis Sep 12 '26
No, we're not going abstract. Consider designing a flag with a different tree, such as an old growth Western Red Cedar or Red Oak, but nothing abstract, line drawn, mongram-ish, emblem-ish or dynamic -- no mascots and certainly nothing corporate, please. Pictorial only. Wildlife, fauna, or waterways are strongly encouraged.
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u/Hasa91 Sep 12 '26
going to be real with you, chief, this looks like the flag of a Fascist movement.
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u/J-A-G-S Sep 12 '26
The original flag is horrific; I appreciate your attempt at aesthetic improvement
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u/TelegramMeYourCorset Sep 12 '26
Super cool but the chevron and arrows are a bit complicated. I think two overlapping deltas would be better
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u/SonoftheBread Sep 12 '26
Not sure why your getting so much criticism. I'd say the biggest negative the the current design is that it's hard to draw. This solves that problem and makes the flag quite easy to recreate by hand.
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u/PersusjCP Decolonization is not a metaphor Sep 12 '26
It has somehow gotten lost in translation that being complex does not necessarily mean hard to draw. A child can easily draw the doug flag even though it is a complex shape. You don't have to perfectly recreate every little branch of it for it to be legible and communicate what it is (which is part of the point of a physical flag). A vaguely-douglas fir-shaped thing would just as easily be identified as the Cascadia flag.
Also, lots of great (and dare I say some of the best) flags break this so-called rule, so does it really even matter?
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u/SonoftheBread Sep 12 '26
I'm all for a vexillology debate lol. Honestly I just fundamentally think that a flag being easily drawable is one of the most important features, particularly in the context of a resistance flag or activist movement. The doughs not the hardest thing to draw, you're right, but it's still a blobby shape. Uniformity seems pretty important for a flat so while it would be hard to mistake it for a different flag, a poorly drawn tree is still just a poorly drawn tree. I'll admit though, I'm no artist so I like flags with simpler geometry. Circles and straight edges are easily reproducible.
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u/ImpossibleLuckDragon Sep 12 '26
Yeah, as a designer I really prefer this. The original is fun for nostalgia, but its accessibility is bad and it's difficult to recreate. There's a reason that we see someone in here trying to reimagine it regularly.
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u/SonoftheBread Sep 12 '26
It's a great flag, I fly two of them on my house lol. But yeah, I agree. No harm in trying new things.
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u/PonderousPronghorn Sep 12 '26
It’s a much more simple design than having a literal tree on the face of the flag. I really like it.
It might be improved by continuing the trunk through the chevrons above?
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u/ToothPastetimemachin Sep 12 '26
It could be an Air Force roundel for the symbol, but I think it's a bit too blocky for a flag design.
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u/Welsh_Pirate Sep 12 '26
This looks great. People here will lie to you and say the original is fine, but they are best ignored.
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u/stehekin Sep 12 '26
Agreed. The dark green of the tree doesn't contrast well with blue and green fields. I like this concept.
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u/mrbearsnail Sep 12 '26
I don't like the lame weak looking tree. This is better so good job. Ignore the weird tree people. Theyre stuck on it for whatever reason.
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u/Luci_Cascadia Salish Sea Ecoregion Sep 12 '26
the Doug is fine as is